1981Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical SocietyRequires access

The forced nutations of an elliptical, rotating, elastic and oceanless earth

John Wahr

Open publisher page 362 citations

Abstract

We compute the luni-solar forced nutations of an elliptical, rotating, self-gravitating, elastic, hydrostatically prestressed and oceanless earth. Several recent structural models are considered, each possessing a fluid outer core and solid inner core. Complete results are given for the nutation of the ‘axis of figure for the Tisserand mean surface’ which best represents the observational effects of the Earth's nutational motion. Differences between results for different structural models are observationally insignificant. Differences between our results and Molodensky's are as large as ∼ 0.002 arcsec at six month and at 18.6 yr.

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We compute the luni-solar forced nutations of an elliptical, rotating, self-gravitating, elastic, hydrostatically prestressed and oceanless earth. Several recent structural models are considered, each possessing a fluid outer core and solid inner core. Complete results are given for the nutation of the ‘axis of figure for the Tisserand mean surface’ which best represents the observational effects of the Earth's nutational motion. Differences between results for different structural models are observationally insignificant. Differences between our results and Molodensky's are as large as ∼ 0.002 arcsec at six month and at 18.6 yr.

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Available abstract

We compute the luni-solar forced nutations of an elliptical, rotating, self-gravitating, elastic, hydrostatically prestressed and oceanless earth. Several recent structural models are considered, each possessing a fluid outer core and solid inner core. Complete results are given for the nutation of the ‘axis of figure for the Tisserand mean surface’ which best represents the observational effects of the Earth's nutational motion. Differences between results for different structural models are observationally insignificant. Differences between our results and Molodensky's are as large as ∼ 0.002 arcsec at six month and at 18.6 yr.

Key concepts: Nutation, Outer core, Inner core, Core (optical fiber), Physics, Earth (classical element), Motion (physics), Geodesy

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